In every gamer’s career there comes a game that may not look the prettiest, be the most mechanically sound, or even review very well that just lands with them in a way that it is never forgotten. For me, Way of the Samurai on PS2, developed by Acquire and Spike is that game. It is easily the one game I have spent the most hours on of any game that I have ever played. The experience runs that deep in my gamer blood.

No idea why this afro-samurai is here….

Way of the Samurai came out in 2002 and was published by BAM! Entertainment, a company who is no longer with us. This experience spawned an entire series that still had entries all the way up until 2012 with Way of the Samurai 4 on PS3. While I have played every entry in the series, I still found the very first game to be the best one.

Way of the Samurai plays like a choose your own adventure novel. The story takes place in 1878, shortly after the fall of the historical Tokugawa Shogunate. This has us slapped dab right in the middle of the Meiji period during the Satsuma Rebellion, which was the era of great change for the entire country. The rise of firearms and Western style armies are on the rise as the days of the Samurai are in its final moments. It was truly a paradigm shift which makes for brilliant setting for the things to come in this game.

You take the roll of a ronin (wandering samurai) who strolls into the fictional outpost town of Rokkostu Pass. This place is a small populated village that is adjacent to a railroad track and iron foundry. The Pass is under competing control of two separate samurai clans who have dueling agendas that put the people of the Pass at peril. Word has it around town that the government forces have a massive army that are taking control of the country by usurping samurai warlords that rule the areas. This army is large, well-armed with modern (for the time) weaponry and seemingly unstoppable.

One of the right hand men of Kurou Clan

One of the factions in Way of the Samurai is the Kurou family, a clan who previously ruled the Pass through extortion and intimidation with no competition. This family is deciding whether or not to continue fighting against the government forces or fold to their desires and sell the iron foundry to them and cease the battles in exchange to remain in control of the Pass.

The second samurai faction is the Akadama clan, who’s leader is the illegitimate son of the head of the Kurou family. They know that selling the foundry to the government will be the nail in the coffin for the government to control the area and will do anything in their power to stop the transaction from happening. Of course caught in the middle of this struggle are the townspeople who are suffering and victimized by both clans and their struggle with the government forces.

When the game starts, you arrive in the pass and stroll upon a bridge. You know nothing about any of the things I listed above, and have no context to the world around you. You are nothing but a wondering samurai who is about to make a series of choices that will send him on multiple different paths of allegiances and betrayals.

With 7 completely different endings you will find yourself replaying this game while carrying knowledge form your last play through into the next game which will influence your decisions as you navigate your way to a new ending.   The game does not take long to beat, a speed run could take only 45 minutes while a full play through could last 4 or 5 hours. How long you linger in the Pass is completely up to you. You can even walk away from the fight entirely and end things on your own terms.

The avatar creator before your adventure begins

Leaving early actually works as a great way to collect swords. As you beat the game, or leave the Pass early, you take your swords with you and can use them at the start of every new game. With every completion and event down you will get new customization pieces for your avatar as well .This includes hairstyles, body types, and accessories.

Dying with your swords during a play through will have you dropping them, and losing them forever. You can visit the blacksmith during your play through and enhance your weapons but again if you die, you will lose them forever. It is always good to just leave the Pass early and end your current play through just so you can salvage your weapons if you think you won’t be able to make it to the end.  Upon completion of a play through your swords, enhancements and all, will be found in your weapons locker to choose upon your next visit to the Pass. This creates a gameplay loop that is so satisfying.

The challenge in Way of the Samurai is real when you up the difficulty on your play through. Higher difficulty levels promises better weapon drops, and as you enhance those weapons you form a real bond with your swords. Swords come in many differently fighting styles as well each with their own animation set.  Fall in love with your creation and hope you don’t lose it to a boss enemy or a swarm of angry sword wielding fiends.

I guess he chose to attack the men on the bridge

Let’s go back to that bridge on the first day of the ronin’s arrival. The first thing you come across is a scuffle on the bridge. Members of the Akadama clan are hassling a woman from the town who works at the restaurant. As you come on to the bridge you have your first choice of many, do you act as the girl’s savior, join in and help the samurai mess with the girl, or do you just ignore the situation all together? Each choice sends you into branching narrative paths that comes to crossroad events as the characters are woven together into a choose your own adventure like tapestry.

What decisions will have you aligned to which factions? Will you turn on your own kind and side with the government? Is siding with either Samurai faction really the best? How about aligning yourself with the townspeople? How about aligning yourself with one, only to betray them later and join another? Every single one of these are an option, and the game really insists that you discover all the pathways so you can get the full perspective.

The gameplay for Way of the Samurai may not be as tight as other games like God of War or Ninja Gaiden. Graphics are hardly as good as they should have been at this time, and the revisions for this game were everything but generous here stateside. All these things don’t matter to me though. I think the controls are serviceable enough and the real thing I identified most with was the setting and the choose your own adventure type model. The idea of collecting swords was as addicting as catching ‘em all in Pokémon.

It is my ultimate guilty pleasure and I implore you all to try and track down a copy or at least play the fourth instalment on Steam or PS3. If you are a giant fans of Japanese history and Samurai in general, than look no further than this ultimate samurai simulator.